Kolkata: Fire crew continues to tackle Bagree Market blaze even after 61 hours
Kolkata, Sep 18 (IBNS): Two and half days after the deadly fire broke out at Bagree Market in central Kolkata's commercial hub Burrabazar, firefighters are still battling to douse a large number of pocket fires in the six-storey building, officials said.
According to reports, more than 30 fire tenders and hundreds of firemen are currently engaged at the scene in containing the smouldering pocket fires as well as cooling the building down.
"Firefighters are currently tackling several smouldering pocket fires, which have been noticed on second, third and fourth floors of the six-storey market's B, C and D blocks, and our 'cooling off' process is on at those areas of the building where the blaze has completely been doused," a senior official of state fire and emergency services department told IBNS.
"It would take another day to bring the Bagree Market fire completely under control," the official added.
Meanwhile, due to a heavy heat, several cracks have been spotted in the walls of the old multi-storey when a small portion of ceiling in the D block collapsed on Tuesday morning, reports said.
Senior officials of state fire services said that the department will lodge police complaint against the owners of Bagree Market and the director-officials of Bagree Estate Private Limited in connection with the case as a grave violation of fire safety norms were discovered inside the building.
One of the owners of Bagree Market, Radha Bagree, and the CEO of Bagree Estate Pvt. Ltd, Krishna Kumar Kothari, have been absconding since the major fire outbreak.
Earlier, at around 2:30 am. on Sunday, the major fire broke out on the ground floor of six-storey commercial building, Bagree Market, under Hare Street Police Station limits in central Kolkata's Canning Street area and it spread to other floors quickly as several inflammable objects were stored there.
A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box beside the building.
West Bengal Fire services' DG Jagmohan said, "It was a huge fire and firefighting operation became more difficult as several inflammable objects were stored inside the multi-storey market."
"No civilian has been injured so far in the incident while few of our firemen were minorly hurt or fell sick during firefighting operations," the official added.
According to locals, hundreds of shops inside the building have been gutted completely due to the fire.
"Just a month before Durga puja, products and machinery worth several crore rupees have been gutted in the major fire outbreak," a local trader told IBNS.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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